Is your project stalled–or worse: failing?

Have you ever noticed that some projects seem to have a life of their own? They are running at maximum speed straight toward the desired end point with seeming little effort and no problems. Then there are the others that get to a point and then stop. Nothing seems to work to get them started again. You may be trying to solve the wrong problem. Let me explain that a little further, by giving you an example.

Some of us like to have a complete and comprehensive plan before starting the actual work. As that plan is being developed a new idea will occur, or someone else will suggest something that makes good logical sense and that new idea will be incorporated into the current plan. Of course, that means reviewing every single item on the plan in case there is a flow-on effect from the new idea, but that’s OK, it will make a better plan in the end. Or so you think.

The problem arises when new ideas continue to appear before the plan can complete a cycle, before the plan can be finished and actual work can commence. And of course, if you are one of the people who are likely to experience this problem then you would never launch with just a ‘Plan A’, you need a backup plan in case Plan A doesn’t work the way you intended, and that just widens the window of opportunity for a new idea to appear and start the cycle all over again!

There are four basic reasons projects fail. This week we will investigate the reasons why they fail, and the solutions are in the member’s section.

This is the first of four reasons, it is sometimes called ‘Analysis Paralysis’.

Have you ever been caught in this trap? What did you do to resolve the issue? (And members – please leave comments on the solutions given)